The head of a prominent engineering firm took the stand at the Charbonneau Commission on Wednesday afternoon and calmly admitted that his company accepted...

The Charbonneau Commission announced on Wednesday that it will ignore the videotaped confession of a witness who admitted that he lied under oath, only to retract his statement a few weeks later.

In an interview conducted by commission investigators on Dec. 11, former Union Montreal political organizer Martin Dumont clearly stated that he had fabricated a story about a receptionist being asked to count $850,000, adding that he “should not have misled the commission” when he testified last October.

Dumont’s lawyer, Suzanne Gagné, appeared before Justice France Charbonneau on Tuesday and argued that the apparent confession was made under duress, and that her client’s rights had been violated.

Charbonneau allowed Gagné to cross-examine the investigator who conducted the December interview, but would not allow her to call Dumont’s wife (and two other witnesses) to the stand to back up her claims. The judge also ruled that Gagné could not enter records into evidence showing Dumont was hospitalized in the hours following the controversial interview.

Gagné, in response, took the matter to Quebec Superior Court in the hopes of forcing the commission to agree to those requests. Her end goal was to have the videotaped confession thrown out.

On Wednesday, commission lawyer Denis Gallant announced that his team had decided to ignore the videotaped evidence, making the court proceedings unnecessary. Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Gagné seemed pleased with the commission’s decision, but noted that the damage to her client’s reputation had already been done.

“Because of the public character of these hearings, this video declaration was unfortunately shown during Monday’s session and retransmitted by Quebec’s media,” she said. “This has caused considerable harm to the reputation of Mr. Dumont, to his personal life, his professional life and his health.”

Dumont, meanwhile, is expected to be back on the stand at the ongoing inquiry on Thursday. He will be asked to respond to questions from lawyers for both Union Montreal and possibly the city of Montreal.

A former vice-chairman of Montreal’s executive committee said Wednesday that the provincial government should make people who make false statements to the Charbonneau Commission face severe consequences.

Alan DeSousa, who co-chaired the powerful municipal committee from 2009 to 2011, said people’s reputations have been damaged by “false” and “uncorroborated” testimony heard at the commission.

“I think the justice minister has all the tools at his disposal to go all the way to make sure there are clear consequences for this type of behaviour, which I don’t think is appropriate,” said DeSousa, who lost his position as a member of the executive committee in November when Mayor Michael Applebaum left the Union Montreal political party and formed a coalition with two other municipal political parties.

DeSousa is a member of Union Montreal, former mayor Gérald Tremblay’s party.

Tremblay resigned in November, soon after Dumont made allegations before the commission about illegal fundraising activities involving Union Montreal.

The provincial minister responsible for the Montreal region, Jean-François Lisée, said Wednesday that Tremblay made the right decision to step down, because he didn’t have the credibility to continue to run the city. Several members of the provincial government called on Tremblay to reflect on his future in the wake of Dumont’s testimony last fall, but Lisée said that wasn’t because of Dumont’s “uncorroborated allegations.”

“(Tremblay’s) sincerity and his integrity were not in question,” Lisée said. “It was his ability to manage the city.”

As for Applebaum, when asked about Dumont’s allegations, the mayor told reporters to ask those questions to Union Montreal.

“I’m an independent mayor, I’m representing the citizens and I will work with all the political parties,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t want to get into the politics, I’ll leave that to each of the political leaders to defend the interests of their political parties.”

The most important thing, Applebaum said, is for the Charbonneau commission to shine a light on the question of corruption and collusion in the construction industry. And, he added, testimony presented at the commission must be corroborated.